I've been thinking about what I said previously about setting the level/hit dice of
human adversaries in wilderness and dungeon areas. I sort of pulled the numbers "4 HD/6 HD/10 HD" from thin air. I remembered that fighters in castles can be Lords (9th level) or Superheroes (8th level), so I wanted the top number to be close to that. Wizards are 11th level, Necromancers are 10th level, so I set the upper range at 10th. For low-level wanderers, a wandering Hero seemed likely, so that's where the 4 HD number came from. For the mid-level, I picked 6 HD as halfway between 4th and 8th.
But those numbers aren't too far off from something else in the rules: the composition of bandit forces in
Monsters & Treasures (p. 5.)
For every 30 bandits there will be one 4th level Fighting-Man; for every 50 bandits there will be in addition one 5th or 6th level fighter (die 1-3 = 5th level, die 4-6 = 6th level); for every 100 bandits there will be in addition one 8th or 9th level fighter (die 1-3 = 8th, die 4-6 = 9th).
So it seems like we could relate the two, somehow. I'll have to think about that.
I like that bandit/mercenary bands are on the same level as name level characters with strongholds. It brings to mind, in no particular order:
ReplyDelete- The princes of the 30 years war
- Post-apocalyptic road warrior warlords
- The duke in The Deed of Paksenarrion
I noticed the same thing, and was mulling over the idea of opening up castle occupants to some of teh man-types. So, you might find a superhero who has just built a castle and is working towards 9th level (by challenging passers-by to jousts, obviously...) or an actual lord of the manor, or a smaller bandit band with a 6th level or 4th level leader who's taken over a castle someone else built.
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